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1871 
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ADDRESSES DELIVERED 



ORGANIZATION MEETIxNG 



OF THE 



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APRIL 29, 1871, 



BY COMMISSIONERS 



HOOPER C. YAN YORST, 
BERNARD SMYTH, 
NATHANIEL SANDS, 



ISAAC BELL. 
MAGNUS GROSS, 
WILLIAM WOOD. 



NEW YORK: 

TH^ NEW YORK PRINTING CO., 81, 83, and 85 CENTRE STREET. 



1871. 



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ADDKESSES DELIVERED 



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APRIL 29, 1871, 



BT COMMISSIONERS 



HOOPER C. YAN YORST, 
BERNARD SMYTH, 
ISTATHANIEL SANDS, 



ISAAC BELL, 
MAGNUS GROSS, 
WILLIAM WOOD. 



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NEW YORK: 

THE NEW YORK PRINTING CO., 81, 83, and 85 CENTRE STREET. 



1871. 






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lo ADDEESS OF COMMISSIONER YA'N YOEST. 
^ - 

^ Gentlemen: There is an obligation resting on the State to 
devise measures to properly educate its youth. A wise minister 
of state will understand and make provision for this. No gov- 
ernment can, with safety to itself, disregard this duty. In this, 
as in the case of the neglect or omission of any other manifest 
obligation, the State weakens herself. It is unsafe to leave the 
organization of a system of education of the young to the 
suggestions or obligations of parental love, interest, or duty, or 
to the efforts of individual or associated voluntary benevolence. 
All experience demonstrates that such dependence produces 
uncertain and imperfect results. So that it has come to be an 
acknowledged right to claim from the State, as it is its true in- 
terest to bestow, adequate and reliable provision for the best 
known means, agencies, and appliances for the education of the 
children of her citizens. It is quite true that Lord Bacon, in 
discoursing upon the elements of the " true greatness of king- 
doms and estates," says that the principal point of greatness in 
any state "is to have a race of military men," and that it is 
essential " that the disposition of the people be stout and war- 
like." But this eminent philosopher was a believer in monarchy 
and of the rule of hereditary princes, and wrote for the time in 
which he lived. He favored wars of aggrandizement. And 
among a military people frequent wars are a necessity to main- 
tain their discipline and preserve domestic peace. In govern- 



meiits where the people have no Yoice, where unthinking obedi- 
ence to the will of a ruler is a principal duty, intelligent thought 
and inquiry have little room for exercise. But in states wher^ 
the whole power rests with the people, and where both the form 
of the government and the method of the execution of its au- 
thority^, and the designation of the agents who are to enforce its 
execution, rest upon their choice and will, it is of the first im- 
portance that they be well informed, and intellectually and mor- 
ally educated, as well as physically developed. The advocates 
of orderly government now urge, in commenting upon the pres- 
ent condition of affairs in France, as they have ever done when 
a change in its form of administration was imminent, that the 
people are not prepared for a democratic form of state. Although 
there are now, and ever have been, among the French earnest 
and intelligent advocates for the complete sovereignty of the 
people, and many men abundantly competent to take the lead in 
such movements and wisely lay the foundation of a great re- 
public, still all efforts in this direction have heretofore miscarried 
for the want of sympathy and support among the people them- 
selves. Consideration may determine whether there be any log- 
ical connection between such a state of affairs and the condition 
of the instruction of the people. A late census of the French 
people discloses the fact that of the total population of 38,000,000, 
14,900,000 could neither read nor write, and of this number 
11,000,000, or nearly thirty-three per cent, of the whole popula- 
tion, were of teachable years. This census also discloses the facts 
that the highest degree of instruction was to be found in the de- 
partments of Alsace, Jura, near Switzerland, and Yosges, near 
Alsace ; the lowest in Brittany, and Haute Yienne. 

EAKLT HISTORY OF THE STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

The sentiment of the people of New York in favor of public 
instruction was early developed, and has been of constant, 



steady, and progressive growth. It has long since been fixed as a 
wise State policy. Even in its colonial condition some efforts 
wxre made in that direction, but when the State had come to be 
thoroughly organized, and its political status established, one O"*: 
the first of its deliberate acts was a provision made for the or- 
ganization of a system of instruction for the young. The im- 
portance, as a measure of State, of the establishment of a system 
of common-school education was apparent to the mind of Gov. 
George Clinton, who, as early as 1792, called the attention 9;£f.the 
Legislature to it in his annual message. Under his administra- 
tion, and upon his recommendation, the first important and prac- 
tical legislation was had looking to the foundation of a sound 
system of public instruction, and the sum of fifty thousand dol- 
lars a year — a large appropriation for those days — for five years 
was made for this object. In 1798, and before the expiration of 
the five years limited by the act, schools had been established in 
a majority of the then counties of the State, and about sixty 
thousand children during that year received public instruction. 
The legislation so happily inaugurated by Governor Clinton was 
further supported by subsequent executives and legislatures. 
Through the encouragement of Governors Jay and Tompkins in 
the early period of its history, and in later years of Governors 
Marcy, Seward, and others, all legislation needed to firmly es- 
tablish and liberally sustain the system was from time to time 
secured. It is impracticable now to follow the various stages in 
the history of this important subject. But its movement, al- 
though at times retarded, steadily progressed. Appropriations 
were from time to time made as its wants demanded, and funds 
were established for its support and complete administratioh. 
The amount of public money now appropriated in the various 
districts of the State for the support of free schools exceeds ten 
millions of dollars, and which sum is chiefly raised by direct tax- 
ation ; and the number of children who received instruction dur- 



ing the past year is about nine hundred and seventy thousand. ' 
To such a magnitude has this system grown in the State, under 
its fostering care, in the sj)ace of about sixty years. 



NEW YOEK CITY SCHOOLS. 



But I beg to call attention for a few moments to the 
history of the schools of this city, which has a peculiar 
interest to us. When that distinguished statesman, De Witt 
Clinton, was Mayor of the city of New York, a Free School 
Society w^as established in the city "for the education of 
such poor children as do not belong to or are not provided 
for by any religious society." This organization was formed 
in pursuance of an act of incorporation obtained from the 
Legislature, the Mayor himself being one of the incorpora- 
tors, and the first President of the Society. The first school 
under this act of incorporation was opened in the year 1806. 
It depended chiefly for its support on the contributions of the 
benevolent. In the course of twenty years this excellent society 
had established in the city several well- organized schools, for 
the support of which thej^ had received both municipal and State 
aid. 

PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY OF NEW YOKK CITY. 

In the year 1826 the various schools of this society, to- 
gether with others which were in existence and not under its con- 
trol, were united and directed under the management of a cor- 
poration called the " Public School Societ3\" This organization 
gave a new impulse to the cause of popular education, and placed 
the whole system on a broader basis and infused new energy in 



all its operations. This society performed a most useful service 
to tlie State and' to the canse of education during the period of 
its existence, and those who managed its affairs deserve high 
commendation for their disinterested public service. During 
the existence of this society not less than six hundred thousand 
youth of the city had been educated, and a large number of 
teachers prepared for service. The Board of Education was or- 
ganized under an act of the Legislature passed April 18, 1842, 
which act extended to the city of New York the common-school 
system which prevailed in the other portions of the State, the 
schools under which were managed by officers elected by the 
people for the purpose. The Board of Education commenced 
its operations as soon as its measures could be perfected, and pro- 
ceeded to erect school-houses and gather scholars for instruction. 
It was evident that the mission of the " Public School Society" 
was now over, that it was neither wise nor economical to have 
two systems of instruction proceeding at the same time, in the 
same field of operation; it would lead to conflict of opinion, and 
that both judicious action and usefulness would be impaired. 
This was soon felt by all the friends of education and good gov- 
ernment. The necessity for unity of system, and administration 
without distraction, became manifest. In 1853 an act of the 
Legislature was passed authorizing the Public School Society to 
discontinue its organization, and to transfer its property, real 
and personal, to the city of New York, and a portion of its 
trustees to become Commissioners at large of the common schools 
of the city and members of the Board of Education ; and its 
property, valued at over $600,000, under the act, and by the ac- 
tion of the society itself, passed to the control of the Board of 
Education, upon whom the administration of the common-school 
system was thenceforth solely to depend. The influence of the 
consolidation of these two organizations into one harmonious 
body was beneficial to the salutary working of the system. 



THE BOAED OF EDUCATION. 

Since the year 1853 and up to the present time, the public 
schools of 'New York have been nnder the control of this or- 
ganization, called the " Board of Education," the members of 
which have been elected by the people, and during that period 
of time our school system has attained to its present great pros- 
perity and usefulness. Under its care and management has been 
perfected a wise and judicious system of instruction ; it has pro- 
gressed and expanded and adapted itself to the improvements 
which have taken place in science and arts and the methods of 
instruction. The cause of education or its administration has 
not been stationary. It has steadily grown and increased in its 
means of usefulness. It has appropriated to itself and endeavored 
to put in practice in the schools whatever experience has estab- 
lished to be beneficial in method or subjects of instruction. The 
results of its operations may this day be regarded with emotions of 
honorable pride by every citizen of New York. Under the means 
and infi.uences which this Board has furnished, the great mass of 
the children and youth of the city have been educated. Contem- 
plate for one moment the result of its work. It has established 
and well maintained thirty-four Primary Departments and 
Schools, in which were instructed this day at least sixty-five 
thousand children. It has established and well maintained 
eighty-nine Grammar Schools, male and female, in which were 
instructed this day over thirty-five thousand children. 

The system of instruction of the males terminates in a full 
and complete course of collegiate education of four years in the 
College of New York, fitting and preparing them for any sphere 
of action or usefulness in life ; and that of the females in a Nor- 
mal College, which at this time contains over one thousand 



9 



pupils who are themselves being educated and trained to become 
the teachers and guides of others. The number of schools 
wholly under the control of the Board of Education was 221, in 
addition to which there are some fifty corporate schools, partly 
under the charge of this Board, and who participate in the en- 
joyment of the public moneys. In the work of instruction are 
daily engaged 363 male teachers and 2,326 female teachers, 
making a total of 2,689 teachers. And the extent of the work 
accomplished by these earnest and painstaking toilers in this in- 
teresting department of the work of life, charged with so much 
responsibility for the present and the future, to the individual 
and to the State, may be appreciated when it is considered that 
during the year past nearly 235,000 pupils have received in- 
struction in the public schools, and that the average daily attend- 
ance in all the schools under the charge of the Board is over one 
hundred thousand. 



FEMALE TEACHERS. 

When it is considered that quite eight tenths of all the 
instruction of the youth of the city of JSTew York, of both 
sexes, is performed by females, no one can well exaggerate 
the importance of the results to follow from the estab- 
lishment of the iS'ormal College for their education and disci- 
pline. This institution, completely and thoroughly organized 
during the past year, under its efficient President and able corps 
of teachers and instructors, may well command the interested 
attention and invoke the best wishes and prayers of all who 
are interested in successful and useful education. But the 
Board of Education, as the other organizations which have pre- 
ceded it, has done its work. Under that name it belongs to the 
past. But from this rapid summary of what it has accom- 



10 



plished it must be conceded that its mission was a good one, 
and its work, if not perfect, was at least well done. 



THE NEW DEPAKTM;^!. 

The Department of Public Instruction, under the recent act 
of the Legislature amending the city charter, now commences 
its career under our direction as its Commissioners. I have 
deemed it proper to give this brief but yet very imperfect survey 
of the past history and accomplishment of the cause of education 
in New York, in order that we may be sensibly and properly 
impressed with the importance of the work in which we are 
engaged, and with the magnitude of the trust to which we have, 
by the appointment of the Mayor of New York, succeeded. The 
change at this time wrought is not in the system of the schools, 
nor in their administration, nor in the course of instruction. 
Nothing is extended or diminished. The recent act establishes 
a connection between the administration of public instruction 
and the municipal government. The Department of Public 
Instruction is in name and in fact a branch and department of 
the city government. If instruction is the business of the State, 
this is as it should be. Our duties as Commissioners are no more 
and no less than they were as members of the Board of Education. 

But as Commissioners of Public Instruction our term of office 
has been extended, nor may the number of this body be increased 
or diminished, except by force of additional legislation or by 
death or resignation of the members. There is, then, before 
this Commission, a term of five years for disinterested and useful 
devotion to the cause of education, and the good of the State and 
the happiness and welfare of its people. We have succeeded to 
the public schools when they are in successful operation, well 



11 

officered with principals and teachers ; and when they enjoy to a 
very large extent the confidence, and when they are earnestly 
regarded with the warm interest of the people. For we all laiow 
that these schools lie close to the heart of the people of this great 
metropolis. 

We take these schools when our city has a population of one 
million of souls, and at a time when the proper education and 
discipline of our youth is justly regarded by every observing mind 
as the foundation of the continued prosperity and safety of the 
State and city. Those who have preceded us have so per- 
fected and amplified the subjects and methods of instruction 
as to have brought the means of education and the acquisition 
of useful elementary knowledge, in an attractive form, to every 
house, and within the reach of every child in the city, of 
teachable years. They have erected for us large, commodious, 
and well-ventilated school-houses, constructed with reference to 
the comfort, cheerfulness, and health of the teacher and the 
pupils. We have, at our hands, already supplied, books and 
apparatus such as are suggested by the latest improvements in 
arts and science, and advanced methods of instruction. And 
we have to aid us an able and experienced Superintendent of tlie 
schools, with his assistants, upon whom is imposed the duty of 
visitation and examination, without which no system is complete, 
and a large band of skilled teachers and instructors eager for the 
discharge of their duties, and ready to co-operate with us and 
second our efforts to further extend the blessings and advantages 
of education. Both the State and city are liberal in the dispen- 
sation of their funds to us ; no reasonable demand for money 
for the purpose of public instruction has ever been denied. For 
the coming year there is placed at our disposal two million seven 
hundred thousand dollars. These weighty considerations should 
give us a corresponding sense of our duties and responsibilities. 



12 

and we should be prepared to bring to this work a disposition 
faithfully, and as intelligently as we can, to discharge its duties, 
as we will jnstly be held to a great accountability. Ours is not 
a work of construction, but of improTement and extension. * 

Let it be ours, then, to do all we can to conserve and improve 
this system of common-school education, which was laid by the 
wisdom, benevolence, and patriotism of the good and true men 
of the past, who emulated each other in the public service, and 
which the State has liberally aided. Our education should not 
be one-sided, nor should extreme views, in favor of one system 
to the exclusion of others, be admitted, as it has not heretofore 
been. We should extract all good that experience establishes 
and commends. It must, of necessity, however, be practical. 
There are those who advocate a great regard to instruction in the 
sciences, while others give prominence to the acquisition of a 
knowledge of languages. AVe would say, let all be instructed in 
the elements of useful science, and give to all who desire to 
pursue such studies to a high degree every opportunity and 
facility for doing so. Kor should we undervalue the importance 
of the knowledge of the languages. The more languages one 
acquires, the more useful one may become. The acquisition of a 
new language puts the recipient at once into full communication 
and sympathy with the thoughts and feeling of a new class of 
persons, thus widening the sphere of human action and use- 
fulness. 

Dr. Franklin, as early as 1752, advocated a scheme for the 
education of the youth in Pennsylvania, which embraced instruc- 
tion in book-keeping, the rudiments of geometry, astronomy, 
geography, history, logic, and natural science. In addition to the 
Latin and Greek, he advocated instruction in the French, Ger- 
man, and Spanish languages. To all of which was to be added 



13 



good morals and good manners. Franklin thns earlj saw liow 
nsefiil to the American yontli, business man, and citizen, would 
prove the knowledge of tliese modern tongues — the languages of 
people with whom, as he foresaw, we were to have extensive com- 
mercial intercourse, and who in a great degree would in time 
become a constituent part of our own people. 

But wherever man exists on the globe, whether in a rude, 
barbarous, or a civilized state, he is found to have a religious 
nature, and to derive from the exercise and enjoyment of his 
belief, however feeble or erroneous it may be, substantial happi- 
ness and the most cheering hopes and expectations. In our 
country secular education does not inculcate or teach the truths 
or dogmas of any particular sectarian faith. Yet, for the perfec- 
tion of a truly symmetrical character, the religious sentiment should 
be unfolded, directed, and strengthened in the child, so that the 
duties of the man may be properly discharged, and due honor 
and worship be rendered to the supreme source of all earthly 
and spiritual good. Religious instruction is well inculcated in 
the genial atmosphere of the home by precept and example. Its 
truths best come sanctioned by the gentle persuasion and author- 
ity of parental lips ; its faith is clearly taught and directed, and 
its knowledge communicated, by the spiritual teacher or the 
authority of the church and its adjuncts. One word and I am 
done. 

Gentlemen, in the administration of this trust, as Commission- 
ers of Public Instruction, let us be ever impressed with its import- 
ance and its responsibility. Let it be our office to devote our 
time and our attention to the duties of the place. Let it be ours 
to suggest and carry out any needed improvement and just 
advance in the cause of education and in methods and systems 
of instruction, and where errors exist let us correct them in all 



14 

cases. Let us see to it that the youth of this generation be well 
instructed ; let us place within their reach every means of knowl- 
edge which will make their lives more useful and happy, and 
enable them to become good citizens of the Eepublic, always 
remembering that no system of education is valuable which does 
not tend to improve the intellect, strengthen the physical and 
develop the moral nature. 

N'o education is vakiable which does not lead the pupil into 
habits of right thought, knowledge, and action, and which does 
not furnish him with the means to be of service to the State, by 
being a law-abiding, peaceful, intelligent, and virtuous citizen, 
whose highest aim in life is to be faithful in all his relations to 
his God, his country, and mankind. 



15 



ADDRESS OF COMMISSIONER SMYTH. 



Gentlemen of the Dejyartment of Public Instruction— 1 have 
no language adequate to express my feelings on this occasion, 
more especially to respond to the over-expressed compliment of 
my learned colleague, Mr. Wood. I will, however, formally 
tender you my acknowledgment for the honor you have con- 
ferred upon me in electing me as your presiding officer. It is 
true, as the Commissioner has stated, that I have in a very brief 
time been three times honored by an election to this position, 
for this Board, though different in name, is substantially the same 
as the Board of Education, which it succeeds. 

The great confidence reposed in us, and the honor conferred 
by His Honor the Mayor of Xew York, the representative of the 
people of this great city, in appointing us Commissioners for five 
years, I confess, as far as I am concerned, has created very seri- 
ous misgivings in my own mind as to my ability to adequately 
discharge the duties imposed upon us. 

The instruction of the youth of this great city is of the 
greatest responsibility. There is no task equal in importance, or 
which involves so much of interest, not only to the present, but 
to the future. When we reflect that all the schools upon this 
island, from the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil creek,. and from the 
Hudson to the East river, are under the control and management 



16 

of this Board, some idea can be formed of the magnitude of the 
trust imposed upon us, and of the great labor incident to its 
proper discharge. 

I am happy on this occasion to be able to add that the Legis- 
lature of this State at its recent session made provision for 
the erection of suitable school buildings in various locations in 
this city where they are needed. They have also made provision 
for the erection of the Normal College. There is a very great 
misapprehension existing in the minds of the community relative 
to the latter institution. Many suppose that the great city of 
Kew York takes the lead in institutions and seminaries for the 
instruction and training of teachers. I am sorry to be compelled 
to say that she is far behind many provincial cities, even in the 
far West. And in our own State, Normal Colleges have ex- 
isted and been prosdded for by the Legislature for years. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, I can assure you that it will at all 
times afford me the greatest pleasure to assist and co-operate 
with you in every measure to promote the great cause in which 
we are all engaged — the education of the youth of this city. 



t^ 



17 



ADDKESS OF COMMISSIONER SANDS. 



Mr. President and Associate Commissioners of the Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction^On taking our seats in this depart- 
ment for a period of nearly six years, it seems a sacred duty to 
give public expression to our views upon the momentous interests 
over which we have been appointed to preside, and which have 
been confided to our care by his Honor the Mayor of the city of 
New York. 

We are now charged by law to watch over, guide, and direct 
the whole system of public instruction in this vast city, which for 
the use of its million of inhabitants contains to-day— 

First— T\iQ College of the City of New York, with eight hun- 
dred students and a full corps of professors and tutors, affording 
special instruction to such young men as wish to become teachers ; 

Second~-T\iQ Normal College, with its eleven hundred female 
pupil teachers and its large corps of professors and tutors ; and 

Thirdr—ThQVQ are one hundred and seventeen schools under 
the Department of Public Instruction in the city of New York 
classified as follows : 

57 Grammar Schools. 
4:1 Primary Schools. 
6 Colored Schools. 
13 Corporate Schools. 
2 



18 

These are again subdivided into — 

46 Male Departments. 
44 Female Departments. 
56 Primary Departments. 

6 Colored Schools. 

1 High School. 
15 Male Evening Schools. 
11 Female Evening Schools. 

3 Colored Evening Schools. 

The 13 corporate schools were not built nor are they owned by 
the city, but participate in the public school fund. 

These schools and departments, as at present organized, are 
conducted by the following staff of teachers : 

182 Principals, male and female. 
164 Vice-Principals, male and female. 

86 Male Assistants. 
318 Female Assistants in the Male Schools. 
365 Female Assistants in the Female Schools. 
1,050 Female Assistants in the Primary Schools. 
10 Principals of Colored Schools. 
32 Assistants of Colored Schools. 
5 Music Teachers of Colored Schools. 

31 Teachers of German. 

32 Teachers of French. 
83 Teachers of Music. 
51 Teachers of Drawino^. 

3 Teachers of Penmanship. 
7 Teachers of Sciences. 

Total number of Teachers, including those in the Evening 
Schools and ^N'ormal College, is about 2,700. 



19 

In these schools we have a daily attendance of over two hun- 
dred thousand scholars. The school buildings and colleges 
under the department are worth not less than nine millions of 
dollars, and it would require a f and of nearly fifty millions at in- 
terest to produce an annual revenue sufficiently large to support 
this vast educational system. 

Into what insignificance do the most generous and noble gifts 
of great philanthropists for the promotion of education fade, 
when compared with these figures ! The twelve Commissioners 
who are here to-day, stand before the people of this city and 
country responsible for the wise and faithful discharge of this 
great, this sacred trust. The opportunity, the privilege, the 
responsibility are all ours. May it fall to our lot, when our work 
is finished and the term for which we have been appointed has 
expired, to hear from a grateful people, " Well done, good and 
faithful servants." 

OUK WORK 

is at once vast, arduous, and comprehensive. It is not sufficient to 
be honest and economical in the use of the public trust ; we must 
also be wise, active, and progressive. We are all familiar with the 
promise made to those who shall save a single brother, and also 
with the strong denunciation of the Great Teacher against those 
who " shall offend one of these little ones." Holding, then, in 
our hands to so large an extent the destinies of the rising and 
coming generation in this great city, when the Inspired Eecord 
indicates so clearly the value of a single life, how can we over- 
estimate the responsibility resting upon us ? 

We, associate Commissioners, form the very heart of this whole 
system. From here and from us is to go forth life and energy 



20 

and wisdom, which will be felt in every school and by every teacher 
and pupil throughout the length and breadth of our city. If we 
are alive and true to the responsibilities of this trust, that life and 
that truth will be felt from the centre to the circumference. If we 
are cold, indifferent, and inactive, our influence will be worse than 
paralyzing to the life of these schools. It is not the prison, the 
criminal court, the police, or the scaffold that will most eifectu- 
ally eliminate and remove criminals from society, but a wise and 
thorough system of public instruction. 

The great question now comes home to us, with a force that is 
irresistible. Is there no new and better way of training, educating, 
and developing the mind — the intellectual and moral powers, of 
this great army of children and youth, than we have been pursu- 
ing for a long period of the past ? Leading minds in England, 
headed by such men as Huxley, Herbert Spencer, Tindall, 
Henfry, Forbes, Lindley, Carpenter, and Hooker ; eminent men. 
in Switzerland, Prussia, and Germany ; in fact, scientific and 
thoughtful men in all lands, have a firm and abiding faith that 
we are some day to grasp the intellectual chart and compass that 
will guide us safely and wisely across the ocean of life, under a 
clear knowedge of the laws of mental growth ; that through this 
perfected knowledge we shall no longer see as through a glass 
darkly ; that we shall more wisely penetrate and solve the 
great problems upon which mental growth, health, happiness, 
and prosperity are based ; that we shall learn ourselves, and 
be better able to teach the rising generation, how to hold and 
use life wisely and successfully. It is our hope as well as theirs, 
that educated and developed man will yet cease to make war 
upon his brother; that the prison may be comparatively emptied, 
and the scaffold become almost a thing of the past. It is ours to 
aid in so shaping the education of this generation of youth in our 
hands, that they may live freer from sickness and disease, more 



21 

in harmony with nature's laws, and, coming to manhood and 
womanhood, shall sit beneath their '•■ own vine and fig tree," 
blessed in all good works, and diffusing blessings and happiness 
around. 

Now, what is the mental and moral discipline that is to lead to 
these great results ? Simply that which will develop all man's 
powers naturally and harmoniously. We have only to deal with 
facts as w^e find them, with truths as we see them proclaimed 
and recorded all around ns. The grounds are solid, substantial, 
and practical. No mystery enshrouds them. Their great sim- 
plicity, in fact, is the great stumbling-block. Naaman expected, 
when the pro})het, the Lord's anointed, came out to him, that he 
w^ould tell him to go and do some great and difiicult thing in 
order to be healed, and when told by a messenger to simply 
bathe in the waters of Jordan he was filled with anger, and 
had not the counsels of a faithful attendant prevailed, he would 
never have been restored to health. 

It is so with what is called education. We must do some 
great and difiicult thing. The simple, easy, natural, and pleasant 
things will not answer ; they are despised. Unknown and difiti- 
<;nlt tongues must be prematurely learned, before even the 
native language is mastered. The foolish and mystic mythology 
of the Greeks is more precious than a knowledge of chemistry, 
or botany, or biology, or in fact any of the natural sciences. 
Distance lends enchantment to the view, and the history of the 
Egyptians, Carthagenians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, and 
the doubtful record of improbable events alleged by fable- 
makers to have transpired thousands of years ago, occupy the 
precious time of the young instead of a knowledge of their own 
powers, duties, relationships, and the life they are to take hold of 
and make a success. 



22 

It is our mission and our sacred duty to change all this, and 
build up a wise, practical, useful, and solid system of education. 
Not a day should be lost, then, in appointing a committee to ex- 
amine thoroughly into the whole subject of public instruction and 
the theory and art of teaching in this country and Europe, and 
report the result of their examinations to this department. It is 
my earnest desire to inaugurate, as soon as possible, a system 
which shall be based on the development of the powers of 
observation and the powers of practical reasoning. Our system 
makes boys and men encyclopedias, the peddlers of events, data, 
sayings and doings of others. I desire first to make youth strong 
within themselves; to have them rooted and grounded in the 
truths and thin2:s of the world immediately around them : to live 
in a sphere of common sense and use; to leave what is called 
the showy and ornamental to its proper time and place ; to keep 
ever before us " what knowledge is of most worth," so happily 
described by Herbert Spencer. 

We can lift the lowly, strengthen the weak, make the strong 
stronger, and send forth from our schools and colleges thousands 
and tens of thousands of young men and women throughout our 
city and country that will become great and successful workers 
and pillars of the State, returning some sixty and some a hun- 
dred fold to society at large, the cost incurred in their education. 



TEACHEES' INTERCOUKSE AVITH PARENTS. 

I would here suggest that our teachers should mingle as much 
as possible with the parents of the children whom they are in- 
structing, and interest them in their education. The teacher 
could exert a most salutary influence in many cases over the pa- 
rents, and induce them to keep their children regularly at school 



23 

and aid them in, their lessons at home and thus benefit child and 
parent at the same time. 

It might be well for this department to issue an address to pa- 
rents impressing upon them the vast importance to themselves 
and their children of using the advantages afforded by the public 
schools. Parents in this coimtry take their children away from 
school at too early a period in life. A little sacrifice on their 
part would be richly repaid by increased usefulness and power in 
the child. We could take a useful lesson from Europe in this 
respect. 

PHYSICAL CULTURE. 

We mfist not lose sight of this in our improved system. 'No 
efforts will be successful which are not based on soundness of 
body as well as soundness of mind. We shall be wanting in 
common sense if we do not look carefully after physical culture. 

Hygiene, the laws of health and ventilation, and the effect of 
sunlight should be at once brought in our schools. 



EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS. 

All teachers below the grade of principals should, after due 
notice, be re-examined in improved methods of teaching and the 
modern sciences. Our schools, if they are to be made model 
schools, and return to the people full compensation for their 
cost, must be presided over by competent and able teachers. 
We cannot consent for a moment to their being in the faintest 
sense intellectual hospitals. All applicants for the position of 
principals and vice-principals should be thoroughly and carefully 
examined. All teachers who are permanent invalids— and their 



24 

number is large — and all who are worn out in the service, 
should be kindly and justly provided for, and their places sup- 
plied by younger and competent teachers from the Normal Col- 
lege. It should be among our iirst duties to look after this 
branch of our work, and hereafter we should adopt a system 
which has worked so admirably in Prussia, viz. : Examine every 
teacher every two years. I would suggest that the Department 
issue a circular at once to teachers, requesting them to engage 
earnestly in a course of studies that would perfect them as rap- 
idly as possible in their profession. All who are unwilling to 
work must leave this busy hive, and we must all act together 
with a will and a united purpose if we are to win for the people 
the great blessings wliich we seek in this department for them. 
It must be a matter of profound regret to every intelligent 
educator when he examines any one of the many able reports on 
the condition of education in many portions of Europe, to see 
how very far we are behind their noble institutions of learning. 
Go to Zurich, Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Wittenberg, Berlin, Bonn, 
Paris, and many other places, and examine there the great schools 
of technology, and see what they are doing, and contrast them 
with any we have in this country, either public or private, and 
we shall then see how much we have to do to overtake them, and 
that boasting forms no part of our work at present. 



EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOLS. 

I would suggest that we set apart three schools where we can 
fully test the claims of all advanced views in teaching, and as- 
certain their practical value. In no other way can we so well 
and safely improve our system. In these experimental schools I 
would organize all that is good in advanced methods in educa- 
tion and eliminate all that is fanciful and visionary, and then 



25 

introduce what has proved good into all the other schools. There 
are some changes which, I think, it would be safe and desirable 
to make at once in the course of studies in our schools. The 
large amount of time given to the study of grammar, liistory, 
and geography should be abbreviated, and far more attention 
given to the study of the natural sciences. It is a waste of time 
and mental strength to devote so many precious years to the 
details of geography, when the construction of maps, and the 
drawing even of outline maps, is so much more important. 

The celebrated Dr. Arnold remarks : '' For my own part I 
find it extremely difficult to remember the positions of towns, 
when I have no other association with them than their situations 
relatively to each other. But let me once understand the real 
geography of a country — its organic structure, if I may so call it ; 
the form of its skeleton — that is, of its hills ; the magnitude and 
course of its veins and arteries — tliat is, of its streams and 
rivers ; let me conceive of it as a whole made up of connected 
parts ; and then the positions of towns, viewed in reference to 
these parts, become at once easily remembered, and lively and 
intelligible besides." 

And in relation to grammar. Professor Latham, in a lecture 
before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, states : " In the 
ordinary teaching of what is called the grammar of .the English 
language, there are two elements : There is something professed 
to be taught which is not ; and there is something which, from 
being already learned better than any man can teach it, requires 
no lessons. The latter is the use and practice of the English 
tongue ; the former are the principles of grammar. The fact that 
language Is more or less regular, that there is such a thing as 
grammar, that certain expressions should be avoided, are all mat- 
ters worth knowing. And they are all taught even by the ordi- 



26 

nary method of teaching. But are these the proper objects of 

systematic teaching? Is the importance of their acquisition 

equivalent to the time, the trouble, and the displacement of more 

• 
valuable subjects which are involved in their explanation ? I 

think not. Gross vulgarity of language is a fault to be pre- 
vented ; but the proper prevention is to be got from habit, not 
rules. The proprieties of the English language are to be learned, 
like the proprieties of English manners, by conversation and 
intercourse ; and a proper school for both is the best societv in 
which the learner is placed. If this be good, systematic teach- 
ing is superfluous ; if bad, insufficient. There are unquestionably 
points where a young person may doubt as to the grammatical 
propriety of a certain expression. In this case let him ask some 
one older and more instructed. Grammar, as an art, is undoubt- 
edly the art of speaking and writing correctly ; but then, as an 
art, it is only required for foreign languages. For our own we 
have the necessary practice and familiarity. 

" The true claim of English grammar to form part and parcel 
of an English education, stands or falls with the value of the 
philological knowledge to which grammatical studies may serve 
as an introduction, and with the value of scientific grammar as 
a disciplinal study. I have no fear of being supposed to under- 
value its importance in this respect. Indeed, in assuming that it 
is very great, I also assume that whenever grammar is studied as 
grammar, the language which the grammar so studied should 
represent must be the mother tongue of the student, whatever 
that mother tongue may be. This study is the study of a the- 
ory, and for this reason it should be complicated as little as pos- 
sible by points of practice. For this reason a man's mother 
tongue is the best medium for the elements of scientific phi- 
lology, simply because it is the one which he knows best in 
practice." 



Professor Yeomans, one of our own scholars, also says : 

" It thus appears that, to secure the disciplinary uses of gram- 
matical study, not even a foreign language is necessary, much less 
a dead one. When it is remembered that the Hebrew language 
had no gramm'ar till a thousand years after Christ ; that the mas- 
terpieces of Greek literature were produced before Aristotle first 
laid the grammatical foundations of that language ; that the Ro- 
mans acquired the Greek without grammatical aid, by reading 
and conversation ; that the most eminent scholars of the middle 
ages and later, Alfred, Abelard, Beauclerc, Roger Bacon, Chaucer, 
Dante, Petrarch, Lepsius, and Scaliger— Latin scholars who have 
never since been surpassed— learned this language without the 
assistance of grammar; that Lilly's grammar, in doggerel Latin 
verse, was thrust upon the English schools by royal edict of Henry 
YIIL, against the vehement protest of men like Ascham, and that 
the decline of eminent Latinists in that country was coincident 
with the general establishment of this method of teaching ; that 
Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio gave to the world their immortal 
works two hundred years before the appearance of the first Ital- 
ian grammar ; that Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Addison, Pope, 
Young, Thomson, Johnson, Burns, and others, whose names will 
live as long as the English language, had not in their childhood 
learned by English grammar ; that Corneille, Moliere, La Fon- 
taine, Pascal, Bossuet, Boileau, and Racine wrote their master- 
pieces long before the publication of any French grammar ; that 
men like Erasmus, Milton, Locke, Gibbon, Home Tooke, Adam 
Smith, and a host of others, have emphatically condemned the 
method of acquiring language through the study of grammar ; 
that the most eminent masters of language-^-Demosthenes, Sen- 
eca, Montesquieu, Fenelon, and Pope— acknowledge that they at- 
tained their excellences of style by the study and imitation of the 
best models of writing ; and, finally, that mere grammarians are 



28 

generally bad writers — when we recall facts like these, we can 
begin to rate at something like their true value the claims of the 
grammatical study of defunct forms of speech for mental train- 
mg. 

'^ That there is a useful discipline in the critical study of lan- 
guage, as in the critical study of most other things, is not denied. 
But that it has either the transcendent importance usually as- 
sumed, or that it cannot be substantially acquired by the mastery 
of modern tongues, is what the advocates of the dead languages 
have failed to prove." 

In view of such eminent authorities and the universal experi- 
ence of all educators, we are certainly safe in making some radi- 
cal changes at once. I would respectfully invite the attention of 
the Committee on Course of Studies to this subject. One word 
more, and I will close. Great examples are before us ; great 
lights have been hung out to guide us ; great events beckon us 
onward ; a much higher and more expanded civilization is dawn- 
ing upon us ; let us go diligently forward in our noble work, for 
in due time we shall reap a rich reward if we faint not. 



29 



it 



ADDEESS OF COMMISSIONEK BELL. 



Gentlemen — I have been asked to make a few remarks in 
regard to the Normal College. They will be very short. 

One of the first acts of the late Board on coming into power 
was to decide on establishing a Female Normal College, for the 
purpose of furnishing a corps of teachers for the public schools, 
in which they might be thoroughly prepared for the important 
work of instruction. 

The Committee that was authorized to carry the instruction 
of the Board into execution, did so in the space of seven weeks ; 
hired the building at the corner of Fourth street and Broadway ; 
by-laws were prepared ; a full staff of professors and tutors 
appointed, selected mainly from the teachers of the public 
schools, thus opening new avenues for promotion. The Com- 
mittee found supplementary classes in nearly all of the female 
departments of the public schools — many of them small and 
expensive ; and although teachers were mainly appointed from 
these, there* was no pretence even of imparting instruction in the 
method and principles of teaching. There was no training in 
government and discipline, and therefore thousands of children 
were compelled to suffer loss and injury before these teachers 
acquired the necessary tact and power to manage their classes. 



30 

Ou the 14tli of February, 1870, one thousand and sixty-eight 
pupils were admitted by competitive examination. A great revo- 
lution was effected by it, and it has met with immense approba- 
tion. A course of study was adopted, wide in its scope aiM 
useful alike to student and teacher, imparting to them such a 
knowledge of French, German, music, and drawing, as will 
enable us to dispense with special teachers on these subjects, 
which heretofore have been a great source of exj)ense to the 
Board. The average attendance at the Normal College has been 
one thousand since its establishment, and the interest manifested 
by the pupils has been surprising in every thing connected with 
the College. After the examination of last June, though there 
was room but for three hundred, seven hundred and eighty sought 
admission. Though the President notified each principal of 
her quota, five hundred and thirty candidates presented them- 
selves for examination, of whom three hundred and thirty were 
admitted. 

And now one word about " the little school around the corner " 
— I mean the Model Primary. 

The system was not considered perfect without a model pri- 
mary. A building was hired in St. Mark's place ; and though it 
was opened late, and after the other public schools, the average 
attendance has not been far short of two hundred. The organi- 
zation consists of a principal and five critic teachers — graduates 
of the Normal College, and for merit. Both this and the College 
have done excellent work. 



:n 



ADDEESS OF COMMISSIONEE GKOSS. 



Gentlemen — The foundations of a common or popular educa- 
tion in our days cannot be laid too deep; its principles can hardly 
be made broad enough. Mechanical, industrial, commercial, and 
agricultural pursuits — not to speak of scientific and learned pro- 
fessions — at the present day, require of its devotees and adepts 
quite a different standard of information and knowledge than 
may have answered fifty years ago. The application of sciences 
scarcely known at the beginning of the century, to all kinds 
of trades, arts, and mechanical operations, makes it indispensable 
to improve and enlarge the compass of information in the most 
humble walks of life, and to carry instruction in varied branches 
of learning into spheres and associations where not long ago 
ignorance was indigenous, and a better education regarded as 
a luxury and ballast. Hence the necessity of a longer school- 
time for our youth and the expanse of its course of studies. The 
educational axiom of the Romans expressed in the sentence 
''^JS'on imilta sed multum^^ the requirements of our day have 
changed into the expression '^ Multu^n et multa ;'''' in other 
words, not only much but manifold information is demanded. 

Class or cast instruction, that heretofore obtained, can like- 
wise no longer be maintained ; it has been discarded in enlight- 
ened monarchical states, it is out of the question in a republic. 
The brightest pages of Grecian and Roman history have been 
filled while education was common and accessible to all. I do 
not believe in the doctrine that the well-to-do alone should enjoy 
the valuable privilege of giving their children a thorough educa- 



32 

tion. I hold to the more democratic view, that it is the duty of 
a free state or commmiity to give talent and industry, found in 
whatever station, a chance for attaining the highest grade of cul- 
ture and knowledge. Some years ago I happened to be pr^ent 
at a college commencement ; among the graduates ranked high, 
if not foremost, a young man whose astonishing success illus- 
trated to me most forcibly the benefits and great justice of higher 
educational institutes for the people. The father of the young 
man died suddenly — died in the prime of manhood. Just on 
the road to distinction and fame, he was stricken down. We all 
lamented his loss, we still cherish his memory. Being a good 
citizen, an exemplary officer, the whole community owed him a 
debt of gratitude. What might have become, however, of his 
son — to whom he did not leave a fortune — but for our ability to 
educate him? The drudgeries of life might have early beset 
the days of the gifted boy, like those of so many thousand 
others, and instead of a career of usefulness and distinction that 
is awaiting him, he would have been lost in the great throng. 
As it is, the day may come when the shining virtues of the father 
will be revived in the son— to the benefit of the community and 
the satisfaction of all good men. 

ISTo exertion on the part of the government to enhance the 
welfare and happiness of its people does bring greater reward 
than the one made in behalf of the cause of education. Every 
advance in this direction is equivalent to an improvement in pub- 
lic morals, the cause of law and order, the stability of free insti- 
tutions, the decrease of crime, the filling of work-shops and 
emptying of prisons, the increase of wealth and comfort, and 
the disappearance of poverty and pauperism among the masses. 
It is no longer considered a novel tenet that he deserves to be 
called the greatest benefactor of his time and country who con- 
tributes most to the education and enlightenment of its people. 



38 

Has it been the aim of this body to the extent of its powers and 
abilities to lay some modest claim to such proud distinction and 
title ? I dare say, it has. I do not hesitate to assert, that, from 
the hour of its inauguration two years ago, to this day, this 
Board has conscientiously and earnestly exerted itself to realize 
the expectations of its friends, and to win, if not the encomiums, 
at least the respect of its opponents. We have had to endure 
our sliare of criticism, and even to brave at times unkind and un- 
just attacks; but those who indulged in both — let it be said with 
the best of intentions — have never been able to point to a single 
act of this Board seriously provoking either. The responsibili- 
ties of this Commission are grave and manifold, its duties deli- 
cate, its labors assiduous ; and allowance should therefore be 
made for errors of judgment or occasional mistakes. We also, 
in spite of our exertions to the contrary, may have fallen into the 
one and committed the other ; but I do challenge the production 
of a sino;le act throughout a two years' administration that could 
not stand the most searching scrutiny, as regards its probity and 
rectitude. 

Having been intrusted once more with the guidance of the edu- 
cational interests of this metropolis, I trust that the account this 
Board will have to give of its steerage in the future may not be 
less satisfactory and creditable than those of the past, and that 
under its hands our priceless system of public instruction will 
steadily grow, expand, and improve, till reaching the acme of ex- 
cellence and perfection. And may I, in conchision, be allowed 
.to solicit for this our earnest endeavor the good-will and un- 
biassed support of all well-wishers of the common schools, and 
in particular of that great lever of public opinion — the press. 
Thus armed and supported, we cannot fail to succeed and to 
realize the expectations of the most sanguine friends of popular 
education. 



34 



ADDKESS OF COMMISSIONEK WOOD. 



Gentlemen — The hour is so late that I had pretty nearly made 
up my mind to say nothing this evening, especially as I did not 
come prepared to speak on the subject of education. At the 
same time, it seems that at this lirst meeting of the new Depart- 
ment of Public Instruction, each Commissioner, if he choose, 
may lead out his hobby and take a canter upon it without bring- 
ing forward any special motion upon any particular subject. 
He may give vent to his views on the general question. 

It has given me very great pleasure to find that my friend Mr. 
Sands has not allowed one moment to elapse before bringing 
for\va)*d, before the members of this new Department, a very 
comprehensive scheme for the improvement of the course of 
studies in the schools. IS'ow, that is a matter which I think is 
of the very highest importance, and one which the old Board 
had not time to take up, although I think they might have made 
more progress in it than they did ; more especially as I find that 
my friend Mr. Sands, when he moved for the Sands Committee 
on the 15th of September, 1869, brought up a report upon the 
very subjects to which he has alluded this evening in his speech. 
The remarks are very brief, and I will take the liberty of read- 
ing them from the printed report : 

" The Committee are of the opinion that the learning of im- 
portant facts in geography should be taught in the earlier part 
of the course, and not continued beyond the third grade ;^ that 
the instruction should be mainly confined to the great divisions 
of the globe, the several countries, navigable rivers, great com- 
mercial and manufacturing cities, and the great ranges of moun- 



35 

tains, and all from maps. That instruction in history should be 
derived mainly from the reading of such portions of historical 
works as will convey a good idea of some of the leading events 
in the world's history, and that memorizing historical dates 
should be confined to some of the most important events of 
mediaeval and modern times. They are also of opinion that the 
teaching of grammar from books should be restricted to the first 
grade, teachers being expected to correct scholars whenever they 
use ungrammatical expressions, from the time they enter the low- 
est grade, and from the fifth grade upwards, to devote one hour 
per week to oral instruction in writing and speaking grammat- 
ically, illustrating the subject by writing out ungrammatical sen- 
tences, especially such as are most commonly used, pointing out 
the errors, and instructing the scholars to avoid them, giving 
reasons for such avoidance." 

l^Tow, that report was brought up early in October, 1869, but 
nothing has been done towards carrying out the report of the 
" Sands Committee " with regard to those most important particu- 
lars. The wise Hebrew sage tells us to cast our bread upon the 
waters, and we shall find it after many days. After many days 
we have not found it yet ; but here is Mr. Sands, upon the or- 
ganization of this new Board, saying exactly the same thing as 
he did a year and a half ago. But I trust at this time some 
effect will be produced by what he has now said. 

I might say that there is not, or has not been, very great en- 
couragement given to the members of this Board for suggesting 
any improvement in the methods of instruction or in the course 
of studies. I had the honor to propose four several amendments, 
small ones, but still the entering of the wedge of improvement 
into the existing system ; but every one of them was reported 
against on the 2d of February, 1871. And one of those was to 
the exact effect that Mr. Sands' remarks have tended this eve- 
ning. It was this : 

^^ Resolved, That lessons in analysis of sentences be confined 
in future to pupils of the second and first grades, and be 



36 

stricken from the studies of the fifth, fourth, and third grades 
of Male and Female Grammar Schools, and that the time 
so saved in tliese three grades be devoted to reading and 

Hjpellingr . 

Now, then, Mr. President, and my associates of the Board, I 
should like just to give you a little idea of what this analysis of 
sentences consists. I went to the Depository this afternoon, and 
got two of the books that are used — the one in the lower grades 
of the grammar schools, and the other in the npper ones, and I 
opened the book, literally and truly without making the least 
search, and I hit upon this, and you w^ill observe that it is 
for children ten years old : "Analysis. — Words added to either 
of the principal parts of a sentence to modify or limit its mean- 
ing are called adjuncts. Primary adjuncts are those added 
directly to either of the principal parts ; as, ' good books always 
deserve a careful perusal.' Secondary adjuncts are those added 
to other adjuncts ; as, ' Suddenly acquired wealth very rarely 
brings happiness.' Adjuncts are sometimes called modifications. 
Observation I. — The subject or the ohject may be modified by 
different parts of speech ; as, 1. By an article or adjective ; as, 
' The diligent scholar improves.' " Then, in the second obser- 
vation we have, " The predicate may be modified," and so on. 
Now, I would like to know what earthly good that does to a 
child ten years old, or to any person under the sun, nnless she 
or he be an advanced scholar, and wants to know something 
about the structure of the English language? That is fur 
extremely young minds ! Now let us see what we have in the 
course of instruction further on. I opened this higher book, 
also without making the slightest search, when I found as fol- 
lows—and this is taught in the first and second grades: " Par- 
ticiples. — What is a participle, and how is it generally formed ? 
How many kinds of participles are there ? and what are they 
called ? How is the im^jperfect participle defined ? How is the 



37 

perfect participle defined ? How is the phiperfect participle de- 
fined ? " and so on. Then I come to exercises in analysis. I 
again opened without any seeking through the book, and found 
this : " Example analyzed. — ' Children should know that it is 
their duty to honor their parents, to ask advice of them, and to 
observe their wishes ' " — a very admirable sentence. IS^ow here 
is the analysis : " This is a complex, declarative sentence. 
Tlie subject is children ; the predicate is should hiow / the 
object is the dependent clause, that it is their duty, etc. 
That is the connective. The subject of the dependent 
clause is it; the predicate is is ; the attribute is duty. The 
adjuncts of the subject are the explanatory phrases, to honor 
their par e7its, to ash advice of them, and to observe their unshes^ 
On the very next page there comes the next exercise. The ex- 
ample analyzed is, '' Let the child learn what is appropriate for 
his years," and I am sure a most appropriate sentence for this 
book, and I wish it were carried out. "Analysis. — This is a 
complex imperative sentence. The subject is tlioto (understood) ; 
the predicate is let ; the object is the infinitive clause, the child 
learn, etc. The subject of the dependent clause is child ; the 
predicate is {to) learn ; the object is that (comprehended in the 
double relative what, equivalent to that which). The adjunct of 
the subject is the ; the adjunct of the object is the simple adjective 
clause which is appropriate for his years. The subject of this 
clause is which / the predicate, is y the attribute, appi'opriate, mod- 
ified by the simple adverbial phrase, y^r his yearsP IN'ow that is 
very intelligible ! 1 am quite sure that there is no one of the 
Commissioners who understands it one bit better than I do, 
and I don't understand it at all. What earthly good can 
you expect a child to get from that ? And yet these are the 
things that are crammed into the memory of those unfortunate 
children. What is the wonder that children go out, as our own 
city superintendents say thousands do, without being able to read 



38 

or write ! And what they do not say, but what I know, that the 
children in the highest classes in our schools go out into the 
world without being able to spell such a simple sentence as this, 
" We onght to be grateful for all the benefits which we receiT^e,-' 
withont making two or three mistakes in it ! ]N"ow, sir, I say of 
snch stnff as that, it ought to be excluded from the schools with- 
out delay. And yet there are people who think the schools 
could not stand a single day if those things were excluded. 
"These be thy gods, O Israel!" — and they worship them, and 
think that such stuff as I have read to you is educating children ! 

So much for the course of studies, and I could say a great deal 
more on the same subject, but I will not do it, excepting this, that 
there is a great deal of time wasted in the teaching of geography 
just in the same way. There are thousands of rivers and lakes 
among the little hills in this country that no mortal will ever hear 
of after he leaves school. In the same way there are little histor- 
ical incidents which are drilled into the children's minds. They 
do not know any thing about them. I recollect once going to a 
school and hearing a child rattle off in the most glib manner all 
sorts of things about the American Eevolution, and when I asked 
the child who was king of England at the time of the American 
Eevolution, she could not tell me. There is an enormous waste 
of time, a sinful waste of time, in the system of instruction in our 
public schools. And there is another very objectionable thing, 
and that is cramming. There is an attempt made to cram a 
great deal too much into the children's minds, and the result is 
that they do not acquire any thing thoroughly. I recollect that 
when I had the honor of occupying the chair temporarily upon the 
organization of the previous Board and I said that the duty of 
the State in educational matters was confined chiefly to teaching 
the children reading, writing, and arithmetic, I was thought to 
have uttered an extremely heterodox opinion on the subject; but. 



39 

sir, all that I have since seen has convinced me that I was 
perfectly right, and I would to God that I saw the State carrying 
out that simple programme of education. I wish that I could 
see the day when no child should leave our public schools with- 
out being able to read with fluency, to write with facility, and to 
be thoroughly posted, say, in the first four simple rules of arith- 
metic. And when they know that, you have given them the 
power to make their way in this country. All children — any 
boy or girl — who have those things thoroughly in their heads and 
in their memories and understandings can get along in this coun- 
try, and make a livelihood for themselves and others — the second 
great necessity of education, according to Herbert Spencer, after 
being able to take care of our own bodies, which we learn from 
our mothers, and do not learn from schools at all. I say the great 
object of education is to give the children those things. What- 
ever may be added to them is very well. But why in the world 
should we not teach geography and history by properly selected 
reading-books, which we ought to use in our schools instead of 
using this reader, or that reader, witli the stupidest trash that 
the want of wit of man could devise, and which the children are 
made to read over and over again? Why should not you intro- 
duce some book like Robinson Crusoe, or Miss Lamb's Tales of 
Shakespeare, or Washington Irving's works ? But no, there is 
nothing of the kind ; there is nothing but miserable twaddle ! 
They do not understand it, and it does not interest them in the 
least degree. What I want to do is to make the children inter- 
ested ; I want the children to educate themselves. In our sys- 
tem of education we do not generate in the children a desire and 
love of self-culture. Without that they will go forth into the 
world without being educated and instructed at all. 

Then let me say, that in my observations in the schools I have 
almost uniformly found that wherever you have a good Principal 



40 

you have a good school ; and wherever yon have a good Principal 
the Principal ought to have certainly the selection of the teach- 
ers, or a very great say in their selection. And 1 have also found 
that in all the good schools — the thoroughly well-tried schoofs — 
the principals are allowed by the trustees to have something to 
do with the selection of the teachers. 

I consider that in this new arran^rement with reo;ard to the 
school system it is a very great advance indeed that has been 
made in making the appointment of the trustees to emanate from 
the Mayor instead of being by election, but I am extremely sorry 
that the full effect of that cannot be realized for five years to 
come. In the mean time I say — and I give it only as my own in- 
dividual opinion, but it isyan opinion formed after a great deal of 
observation — that the trustees of the schools, with some noble 
excejDtions, are the plague-spot of the whole system, because they 
have the power of putting in the teachers. And we know very 
well that they are influenced by nepotism with regard to those 
teachers in an extraordinary manner ; so that, however stupid 
a teacher may be, if she can say, in Tony Lumpkin's words, 
that " her Grandmother is an alderman and her Aunt a 
justice of the peace," she is very sure of receiving a nom- 
ination. ]^ow all that is utterly wrong, and I think — and I 
say this as my own individual opinion, and hold myself en- 
tirely responsible for it — that in the new appointments, this 
Board being held responsible for the well-workingi of the 
system, it ought to have the proper and commensurate power 
to appoint the teachers. And until some such thing is done as 
that, it will be impossible to carry out the system we are all so 
desirous of administering properly. 

I have, within the last few months, gone entirely through my 
group of schools, with the one exception of the school out at Mount 



4:1 

Washington ; and I hope to visit that next Aveek. I have visited 
every class in every one of those schools. When I have said 
quietly to the Principal, after my visitation was concluded, 
" Snch and such a class does not seem to be as well tauo-ht as 
the other ones. How is that ? The teacher does not seem to be 
up to her work." " Oh ! well, she is put in by some of those ward 
politicians, and I have spoken about it several times, but I can 
get no remedy ; or, if I get the remedy of having the teacher 
changed, perhaps a w^orse one w^ill be put in her place." This 
has also been told me by principals of schools, and that within 
the last ten or twelve days : " Mr. Wood, I am afraid to speak 
about my teachers, because if I say too much of their incompe- 
tency— if I let it be known to the public— I shall lose my schol- 
ars." And of course then her salary would be cut down. " But 
things are getting to that pass that I cannot allow the thing to 
go on. With one or two bad teachers in a large school I can get 
along, because I and my Yice-Principal can do their work. But 
when I come to be loaded down with four or five or six bad 
teachers, out of a complement of perhaps twenty, it is utterly 
impossible for me to get along ; and the whole system will go to 
the dogs unless something be hit upon to put a stop to this ap- 
pointing of inefficient teachers." 

ISTow, Mr. President, we know very well that by the By-laws 
of the Board no teachers can be obtained at all except those who 
have passed through the IS'ormal College and been graduated 
there ; that we are getting a superior class of teachers; and if we 
have still the nominating power lodged with the trustees, that by 
that time they will be only able to select from pupils of the IsTor- 
mal College. But while the grass grows, the horse starves. 
What are we to do with the children now who are so taught as 
they are, in a great many cases ? For it is the greatest mistake 
to suppose that all the schools of our city are equally well taught. 



42 

There is the greatest difference possible between them ; and that 
I know from personal inspection. And I think there is a great' 
deal of force in w^hat Mr. Sands said about re-examination •of 
teachers and principals upon the principles of teaching, to let us 
see that they really understand them. Those who really under- 
stand them won't make objections; or, if they do, they ought 
to be turned out along with those who do not successfully pass 
the examination. Because, while it is right and proper that 
every justice should be done to the teachers, that they should be 
supported in every thing that is reasonable, so tliat the}^ may have 
a proper and effective discipline upon the children, yet we must 
not forget that, after all, the schools are established, not for the 
benefit of the teachers, but for the benefit of the children. And 
it is really to my mind worse than giving poison to them, to have 
intelligent, bright-looking children sitting there, day after day, 
nourished with such stuff as I have read to you out of these 
books ; and with an incompetent teacher, even to give them 
that. And the sooner some steps are taken by this new 
Board to put an end to that system, the better it will be for our 
reputation. 

There is one other matter to which I should like to call your 
attention, and that is to a paragraph in the City Superintendent's 
report for March, 1871, which I consider absolutely awful. He 
says that " the number of pupils suspended or expelled for mis- 
conduct, during the month, was forty-seven, prinGipally from 
the Male Grammar Schools." Tliink of forty-seven children in 
one montli turned out into the streets ! And not all boys, but 
some of them girls. !N"ow, however bad a bad boy may be, a bad 
mA is a irreat deal worse. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump." How much harm may these forty-seven children, re- 
lieved from all restraint, do to the other children of the city ! 
We scruple about inflicting corporal chastisement on the boys, 



48 

3'et we send them out in the high-road to the devil, without this 
Board heino; even coe^nizant of the matter until it is an accom- 
plished fact. Surely, if it require a vote of three fourths of this 
Board — and very properly so require — to dismiss a teacher, we 
ought someho"w to intervene before a child is summarily dis- 
missed from any of our schools. 

Mr. President, I beg to apologize to you and my brother Com- 
missioners for any crudeness which may have appeared in my re- 
marks, as I have not committed them to paper, and have only 
sj^oken " out of the abundance of the heart." 






